


what a lovely way of showing how much you love me

by smolqueernerds



Category: The Ever Afters Series - Shelby Bach
Genre: F/F, I love Ayalla/Ellie okay, They're the Ultimate Moms, nonbinary!Kelly, trans!Chase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 20:32:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7728751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolqueernerds/pseuds/smolqueernerds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: your OTP makes a bet on the gender of their unborn child. Person A seemingly wins the bet, but years later, when their child comes out as transgender, person B gloats, "Looks like I was right after all!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	what a lovely way of showing how much you love me

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the nonmagic AU I have with @lulla-lunekjaer, where Ayalla is a badass Pakistani-born bi politician and Ellie is a smol lesbian baker and together they raise trans!Chase, lesbian!Adelaide, and nonbinary!Kelly. Except that this is kind of an AU of that AU, I guess? Because in this fic Ellie and Ayalla meet several years earlier than in the original AU, and also Jack is handled differently and Cal gets ignored completely. Sorry, Cal. 
> 
> You probably don't need to know all this to understand this fic? Hopefully? 
> 
> Title from "You're Having my Baby."

Some days, Ayalla Aspenwind is unspeakably thankful for her job. She loves the people she works with and the town she serves. She really feels like the work she does is changing the world for the better.

Today is not one of those days.

Her hands are sore from a mountain of paperwork she’s barely made a dent in, her feet hurt from the uncomfortable shoes she grabbed by mistake because she was running late, and her back aches from the fact that she’s four months pregnant. In addition, a new intern spilled hot coffee on her shirt earlier and her eleven-o-clock meeting ran so long that she missed lunch.

She’s convinced that nothing could salvage this day, all the way up until she walks through the door of her apartment and smells food cooking.

“Oh, my god.” Ayalla kicks off her shoes, wincing as they collide with the wall, and walks five steps to collapse onto the couch nearest the coffee table. She inhales deeply. “Sweet lord, I needed this.”

“Is that you, darlin’?” Ellie’s voice floats out of the kitchen. “Did you say something?”

“Only that you’re a goddess and I’m the luckiest woman alive,” Ayalla calls back.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Are you blushing? It sounds like you’re blushing. Come out here so I can see if you’re blushing.”

“If I leave the kitchen, the mushrooms will burn.”

“Pretty please?” Ayalla goes for “flirtatious begging” unabashedly. “I’ve been waiting to see you all day.”

“When your chanterelles are overcooked, don’t come crying to me,” Ellie says as she walks into the living room, hands on hips, wearing a grease-smudged KISS THE COOK apron.

Ayalla promptly heaves herself up from the couch and throws herself at Ellie, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend’s neck.

Ellie’s halfhearted protests are no match for Ayalla’s overeager lips, and if the mushrooms are a little browner than ideal, it’s worth it.

Dinner is devoured with tongue-burning speed; after the table is cleared and the dishwasher loaded, they migrate to the couch and search for the channel with Golden Girls reruns.

As the theme song starts, Ellie puts an arm around Ayalla’s shoulders, and Ayalla leans into her, tucking her feet up and snuggling closer. Ayalla likes to think of this as their Cuddle Position™; sure, they switch it up sometimes, but this is the pose they fall into most naturally.

Ellie strokes Ayalla’s hair, and Ayalla thinks I don't deserve you for the thousand-and-first time.

Ayalla had never expected to date someone like Ellie. Not because Ellie was a woman, though she hadn’t anticipated that, either; although she'd known she was bisexual long before she learned the word for it, she hadn't grown up in an accepting environment, and had married a man shortly after leaving home.

More than that, though, she'd never expected to find someone who would listen to her story of learning she was pregnant a few weeks after a one-night stand with her ex-husband, her explanation that she was fully (reasonably) (probably?) prepared to be a single mother, and her apology if she'd led the other woman on in any way when she'd accepted the offer of a date, then reach across the table to take her hand and tell her that all she wanted was to be with Ayalla and help her in any acceptable capacity. She'd never pictured a partner who would not only look forward to raising another man’s child with her, but try to learn her native Urdu online, do all the cooking, and seemingly enjoy her endless supply of pickup lines. She'd never dreamed that anyone would make her this happy.  
Ah, pregnancy hormones, Ayalla thinks wryly, blinking to prevent her eyes from watering. One of the many things I won't miss about this.  
“You alright, honey?”  
“I'm fine,” Ayalla answers, lifting her head to look at Ellie. “Just thinking about removing this watermelon from my uterus.”  
Ellie’s eyes widen in mock offense. “Excuse you, miss, that's your son you're referring to as a ‘watermelon!’”  
“Our son,” Ayalla corrects automatically, then pauses. “Wait-”  
“Ours?”  
“Son?”  
“You think it's ours?”  
“Of course it's ours - or it will be, if we raise it together. You think it's a son?”  
“I do,” Ellie admits. “I don't know. I just have a feeling.”  
“Hm.” Ayalla wiggles her eyebrows. “Are you willing to bet on that?”  
“What on earth do you mean?”  
“Simple. If it's a boy, I give you money. If it's a girl, you give me money. How much you willing to put in?”  
“I can't believe this,” Ellie says, the corners of her mouth twitching. “Fifteen bucks says we’re having a boy.”  
“You’re on,” Ayalla says, nestling back into her girlfriend’s side.

When they receive the first ultrasound a month later, Ayalla whoops and punches the air, much to the confusion of the technician. Ellie goes to retrieve her wallet with a hearty sigh.

When Charlotte Aspenwind turns five, she announces in no uncertain terms that she's not a she, or a Charlotte, and never wants to be referred to as such again. After his moms have worked out their son’s new name and pronouns, promised to take him shopping for new clothes that weekend, and smothered him with hugs and kisses, Ellie corners Ayalla in the kitchen and demands her rightful forty bucks with a gleeful grin.

(A few years later, when Ellie gets pregnant by donor, she makes the same bet with Ayalla, but they decide to wait until that child is older before making the final call. As it turns out, Kelly’s neither a boy not a girl; so, to compromise, Ellie and Ayalla take Chase, Kelly, and their adopted daughter Adelaide out for ice cream and spend all forty bucks on sundaes.)


End file.
